Unit 2: Biological Bases of Behavior

Cards (96)

  • Autonomic Nervous System: Part of peripheral, controls involuntary actions such as the glands and the muscles of the internal organs.
  • Sympathetic Nervous System: Arouses the body for stressful situations, one of the 2 systems of the autonomic nervous system.
  • Parasympathetic Nervous System: the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving energy.
  • Somatic Nervous system: the division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles. Also called the skeletal nervous system.
  • Phineas Gage: railroad worker who survived a severe brain injury that dramatically changed his personality and behavior; case played a role in the development of the understanding of the localization of brain function
  • Gene: A segment of chromosome that encodes the directions for the inherited psychical and mental characteristics of an organism
    (The words that make up the organisms instruction manual)
  • Hormone: chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream, and affect other tissues.
  • Limbic System: the part of the brain involved in our behavioural and emotional responses
    doughnut-shaped neural system (including the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus) located below the cerebral hemispheres
  • Homeostasis: a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level
  • Chromosomes: threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain genes.
  • Endocrine system: the body's "slow" chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the blood stream
  • Pituitary gland: the endocrine system's most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands.
  • Glial cells: cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons.
  • Positron Emission Tomography (PET): a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task. (PET)
  • Electroencephalogram (EEG): A recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp. (EEG)
  • Behavioral genetics: the study of genetic and environmental influences on behaviors. By examining genetic influence, more information can be gleaned about how the environment operates to affect behavior.
  • Natural selection: the principle that, among the range of inherited variation, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations.
  • Resting potential: the axon gets its energy from charged chemicals called ions. Has a slight negative charge. Only fire when enough energy to do so. (-)
    cant work because they have slight negative charge
  • Action potential: when the cell becomes excited, it triggers, which reverses the charge and causes the electrical signal to race along the axon. (+)
  • Midbrain: coordinates simple movements with sensory information.
    Serves important functions in motor movement, particularly movements of the eye, and in auditory and visual processing.
  • Receptors: receive and transduce signals
  • Identical twins: twins who develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two, creating two genetically identical organisms.
  • All-or-none principle: once action potential is released it cannot go back. The axon either fires or doesn't, it cannot have a slight fire.
  • Computed Tomography scan (CT): A series of X-ray photographs taken from different angles and combined by computer into a composite representation of a slice through the body. Also called CT scan.
  • Dizigotic twins: twins who develop from separate fertilized eggs. They are genetically no closer that brothers and sisters, but they share a fetal environment. (Fraternal)
  • fMRI scan: a technique for revealing blood flow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans. Shows brain function
  • Hindbrain: part of the brain on top of our spinal cord. Controls basic biological structures.
  • Acetylcholine: a neurotransmitter involved in learning, memory and muscle movement
  • Spinal cord: cable of nerves that connects brain to rest of the body.
    "Communications superhighway"
  • Agonists: excite, makes the neuron fire, releases extra neurotransmitters
  • Antagonists: inhibit, stops neural firing
  • Neurons: a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system
  • Soma: cell body of a neuron, assesses messages before passing along
  • Axon: long transmitter that extends from soma- sends message from dendrite to axon terminal
  • Myelin sheath: protects and insulates axon and the electrical signal, speeds up the neural impulse
  • Afferent neurons: also known as sensory neurons, act as a one way street that carries information from the body to the brain
  • Efferent neurons: also known as motor neurons, act as a one way street that transports messages away from the brain to the body.
  • Interneurons: act as the middleman to relay messages from sensory/motor neurons to other neurons
  • Refractory period: the time following an action potential during which a new action potential cannot be initiated. Recharging.
  • Action potential- order of action: dendrites, soma, axon, axon terminal